Japan may need five years to rebuild from the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that has caused up to $US235 billion of damage, the World Bank said on Monday.

The March 11 disaster - which killed more than 18,000 people and ravaged northeastern Japan - will likely shave up to 0.5 percentage point from the country's economic growth this year, the bank said in a report. The impact will be concentrated in the first half of the year, it said.